D SHOW 2019 CATEGORIES & ENTRY GUIDELINES

ABOUT THE D SHOW AWARDS

Now lucky enough to be in its 13th year (see what we did there?), the D Show recognizes the amazing breadth and depth of the creative talent in Detroit.

It’s true, we create a lot of really great sh*t and the D Show is designed to be a celebration of ideas that are conceptually amazing AND well executed. Yes, it’s that super-powerful and uber-magical combination of both that will earn you that highly coveted, and kinda heavy for its size, D award.

In each and every category, and for our Best Of Show, we truly want it to be all about honoring the creamiest of the crop. So, may the best idea, executed the best, win.

WHO CAN AND SHOULD ENTER

The D Show call for entries is proudly open to any Detroit-based agency, client, design studio, broadcaster, publisher, production house, freelancer, student artist or individual responsible for the development and/or execution of creative work.

All work must fall within the outlined categories (more to come on these in a sec). All entries must have been first published, posted or aired in their original form between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019 in a form of media and/or exposed to a substantial audience (with the exception of the new dead ideas/spec category).

The creative concept must have roots in Detroit, whether it’s work from a Detroit-based agency or for a Detroit-based client. The D Council reserves the right to request proof of initial publication, posting or airdate, as well as proof of creation or production dates. Any submissions that have been previously entered in the D Show and are materially unchanged will not be eligible.

WHO PICKS WHAT WINS Winning a D Show award is kind of a big deal.

That’s because we work hard to get a wide variety of kick-ass Judges from a wide variety of big-name ad and experience agencies, hot design firms, cool creative boutiques, and killer production companies from across the U.S., and from even around the world.

Oh, and we tell all of our Judges to not hold any punches. We want them to hold the stuff coming out of the D to a super-high standard, and so we insist they treat the work as if they were Judges for any big award show (you know the ones).

DEETS ON KEY DATES

CALL FOR ENTRIES

OPEN: Tuesday, June 4th

FIRST DEADLINE: Friday, August 2nd, 5:00 pm EST

EXTENDED DEADLINE: Friday August 16th, 5:00 pm EST (Late fees apply)

FINAL DEADLINE: Friday, August 23rd, 5:00 pm EST (Additional late fees apply)

DEETS ON KEY DATES SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED The wait is over. You’ll find out if your stuff got shortlisted via email mid-October.

BEST OF CATEGORY NOMINEES ANNOUNCED In mid-November, the nominees vying for Best Of in their respective categories will be dramatically revealed. And by dramatic, we mean on social. Oh, and spoiler alert: If your work is a Best Of nominee that means you won a D Award in this category. Yeah, you.

BEST OF CATEGORY AND BEST OF SHOW WINNERS ANNOUNCED Of course, it all comes down to who’s bringing home the serious hardware and that goesdown at the D Show on Thursday, December 5th, 2019 at The Fillmore Detroit.

THE MONEY STUFF Enter early, enter often, oh, and be sure to enter multiple categories to up your chances to bring even more D’s home.

SINGLE OR CAMPAIGN Entered by August 2nd Deadline: $150 Entered by August 16th Deadline: $175 Entered by FINAL August 23rd Deadline: $200

INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN Entered by August 2nd Deadline: $300 Entered by August 16th Deadline: $325 Entered by FINAL August 23rd Deadline: $350

STUDENT ENTRIES Free

THE TECH SPECS (ALL CATEGORIES)

VIDEO Upload standard definition or HD video files. Iceberg, our online entry system provider, is powered by Vimeo. Use this URL for video compression recommendations directly from Vimeo to ensure your videos are presented as clearly as possible: https://vimeo.com/help/compression. There is a maximum video file size of 1GB.

AUDIO Upload an uncompressed audio file like .WAV files or compressed audio like .MP3 files. There is a maximum audio file size of 25MB.

IMAGE Attach image files including .GIF, .JPG or .PNG files. There is a maximum image file size of 25MB.

THE TECH SPECS (ALL CATEGORIES)

DOCUMENT Use the document fields to upload any .PDF files. There is a maximum document file size of 25MB.

URL Attach a URL/website address to your entry. It does not matter if you include http or https before it.

GOT A QUESTION (DON’T BE SHY)?

Please shoot any questions regarding entries, categories, really anything D Show-related to:

Michelle Rossow mrossow@adcraft.org

THE CATEGORIES We’re trying something NEW this year, and making these super simple.

So, much like other great shows, we’re going down to just 12 primary categories, and walking away from the way-too-many subcategories.

Each piece of work entered into a category gets a shot to win a D award – and if it does, it will have also a chance to win an even sweller “Best Of” D Award for that category. Plus, each Best Of category winner is then considered for the big overall Best Of Show award.

Keep reading, and you’ll see we give you simple and clear descriptions for what type of work should be entered for each.

TV | VIDEO | MOVING PICTURE

This includes any moving picture, be it a TV spot to online video to preroll to an Instagram Story or even a really great 6-second Facebook video post. And yes, this means your great 15-second preroll could go up against a great TV campaign.

Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash

PRINT

If it spent any time on a printer you can enter it here. That means magazine or newspaper ads (of any size, and again, it could be a single execution or campaign), OOH, POS, posters, even direct mail.

Photo by Bank Phrom on Unsplash

INTEGRATED CAMPAIGNS

Some of our best work and best ideas live in a multitude of mediums, so we want to be sure to give props to those who come up with the ideas big enough to be great across them all. These campaigns must have found a home in at least three different mediums, and up to ten. This is where a really great case study video can do wonders for your chances.

Photo by Sidharth Bhatia on Unsplash

DIGITAL

Yes, it seems this digital thing is really catching on and likely here to say, so good thing there are plenty of talented folks who are doing a lot of great stuff that lives on devices and their respective platforms. By devices, we’re talking about things like smart phones and computers, and platforms include sites, social things like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, and let’s not forget the occasional amazing app.

Photo by Federica Galli on Unsplash

EXPERIENTIAL | LIVE SHOWS

What’s the saying now, people are more about consuming and having experiences than things? And that holds true for how people engage with brands. So, if your idea is something that is “experienced” – you know, things like trade shows, pop-up stores or booths, live events, branded experiences (like maybe at a music festival), stuff like that, you should enter those things here. Knowing the experience could be an engaging mix of technology, video, audio, printed handouts, really any and all of the above, and of course, with a great idea at the center of it all.

Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash

CRAFT

A lot of times, the execution of the best big ideas all comes down to the attention paid to even the smallest of details. The colors, the sound, the words, the pace, the art and design, every part, every piece, every pixel painstakingly considered. This is the category where Judges will be asked to truly focus on those very details, be it the color correction, sound design, music choice (original score or the perfectly chosen licensed track), photography, or maybe the fantastic frame f*cking that went into the edit, any or all of it that helped create something we can all agree (or at least the Judges do) is well crafted. When you enter, you’ll be asked to check a box for what part of the craft the Judges should really focus on.

Photo by Plush Design Studio on Unsplash

PSA

Coming up with (and often pro bono-ing) big ideas and amazing work (in any form or medium) to help a worthy cause, company or charity/non-profit promote its mission to make the world a better place is indeed a noble deed. And we think the greatest of this good works stuff should get a big ol’ shout out and be rewarded with a heavy metal D.

Photo by Marco Bianchetti on UnsplashPhoto by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash

AUDIO MARKETING

Yep, this category used to be call “radio,” but now there so many ways we use sound and audio to get our marketing messages out there – radio spots (both those played on the air and over the internet), branded podcasts, podcast pre-, mid- and post-rolls, branded audio books and storytelling, or even audio that brings a physical experience to life. If it’s music to people’s ears (sometimes literally, and definitely metaphorically) it gets entered here.

Photo by Akshay M on Unsplash

STUDENT

Easily one of our favorite categories, as it’s always amazing to see the incredible ideas that the next gen of ad folks are coming up with – whether it’s an official part of a school project or something they just did all on their own as a student side hustle. Not only are we continually impressed with the thinking and bigness of these ideas, but how truly resourceful students can be when it comes to executing them and making them feel like work done for real clients – because sometimes they are.Oh, and another NEW thing this year: We’re going to award a Best Of in the Student category. Nice.

Photo by Matese Fields on Unsplash

SELF PROMOTION

We all believe we’re really awesome at promoting our clients’ products and services across a range of mediums and in a wide variety of ways, so then it only stands to reason that we should be equally as talented at doing the same for ourselves. Well, let’s let the Judges be the judges of that.

LOW BUDGET

Yeah, there are still the occasional jobs that have big (or at least pretty decent) budgets, but it’s becoming a lot more typical for us to be calling in favors and trying to find ways to stretch a few modest bucks to create something remarkable. We believe these low-dollar, still-big-idea efforts should be rewarded – and not asked to go head-to-head with those chosen few jobs that are still properly funded.

TV/Video/Moving Picture: All in under $20K Print: All in under $1K Audio Marketing: All in under $8K Integrated: All in under $200K

Photo by Matese Fields on UnsplashPhoto by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

DIAS DE LOS IDEAS MUERTOS | SPEC

This is a NEW category. Because we all have ideas we couldn’t sell and/or died a horrible death, but are so awesome we still found a way to execute and make them feel legit enough to include in our book and pass off as real work. Well, rather than save these never-really-sold ideas for the handful of people who peep our online portfolios, let’s give them their little moment to shine – and also serve as another selfish and shameless way to win even more awards. There’s just one small, itty-bitty catch: You need to get approval from clients to enter any work they killed (or if it’s spec, never blessed). The cool ones should be cool with that.

Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash

THANKS. AND GOOD LUCK.